Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

25 Ways to Use the Web to Find Content for Your Blog

As a blogger, you know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is come up with content for your blog. Finding ideas for your blog (especially if you want to post regularly) can often lead to you not blogging at all, because you start hitting the wall when it comes to what to blog about.

So I thought it might be useful to offer up 25 ways to use the web to find content for your blog. Here they are.

Blog Comments

1. Using a plug-in like CommentLuv allows your commenter to share their most recent post. I’ve seen blog titles that have intrigued me and clicked through to read, and given me an idea for a post of my own. We use CommentLuv on For Bloggers By Bloggers.

2. If you see a comment that really resonates and offers a great viewpoint, ask the poster if they’d like to guest for you and expand on the original comment.

3. Similar to above, if you see a comment you disagree with, expand your own view into a post and offer reasons why your viewpoint is different.

Other Blogs

4. As #1 points out, CommentLuv is great for sharing the most recent post of a blogger, but not every blog uses it. So click through the URL of someone’s comment and see what they’re writing about, to see if you can gather ideas from there.

5. Blogrolls. While some have called blogrolls out of date, many bloggers still use them to share what they’re reading. Visit the blogs of those your favourite blogger reads, and see what ideas you can get from them.

6. A lot of bloggers have category lists for Top 10 Tips and popular posts in their navigation menu. Have a look and see what’s there, and use them to build your own content from.

7. Speaking of popular posts, if a blogger has their most popular posts on display in their sidebar, click on a couple to read and see what made them popular. Then see how you can take inspiration from them.

Social Bookmarks

8. Delicious is a great resource for finding blog content. Just type your topic into the Delicious search bar and you’ll find a ton of results from people that have saved articles or blog posts about your chosen topic.

9. Stumbleupon is a cool browser add-on that lets you browse websites at random. You can land on some great content that will give you your own ideas for your blog.

10. While not as popular as it used to be, Digg still has some great shared posts and news on its site. Look at the most popular and see what take you can offer.

11. BizSugar is becoming more popular, as it concentrates on small business news. If your blog is in this niche, you can get some great ideas from here.

12. A mix of social bookmarking and community, Blog Engage is similar to Digg and BizSugar with its voting system, but it focuses a lot on just bloggers and is a great starting point for ideas.

Blog Resources

13. One of my favourite blog communities is Scribnia. You can find authors and bloggers based on niches, and this can really help you target content to get inspiration from.

14. Alltop offers a great collection of blogs in a veritable feast of topics – if you can’t find something to write about there, then I’m stuck!

15. Still viewed by many as the Blogger’s Bible, Technorati has more than 133 million blogs registered with them. Use the categories or top topics to find content you can get ideas from.

16. Google Blog Search offers up a huge resource of blogs on every topic under the sun. Much like Alltop and Technorati, use the topic search to find your interests.

17. Another resource from Google is their Trends platform. If you’re quick off the mark, you can write a blog post about a trending topic, optimize it for SEO, and (hopefully) be found by those looking at the trends for that moment.

18. Junta 42 offers some great tips on content marketing – check out their articles for ways to get ideas for your own blog.

Social Networks

19. If you’re on Twitter, one of the best ways to find content for your blog is to jump into the weekly #blogchat discussion. Great bloggers, great topics – what more do you need?

20. Sticking with Twitter, have a look at what’s trending at any time on that platform then see if you can get a post out about it (just don’t go all spammy with your hashtags when your post is ready). Trendsmap is a great resource for global trends.

21. And yet again with Twitter, Twitter Search is great for finding out what people are saying regarding the stuff you blog about – type in a keyword, and see if any conversations inspire you to expand on them in a blog post.

22. On Facebook there’s a great app called Networked Blogs, that shares content from Facebook users with blogs, and the Networked Blogs directory. You can get a widget with different blogs in it, and use this to build some ideas for your own content.

23. LinkedIn Groups are perfect for finding blog content. Look at the questions being asked on there and write a blog post as your answer.

24. Seen by many as a place for file and document sharing, Slideshare has great presentations that are just chock full of ideas for you to take away and build several blog posts from.

25. YouTube is more than just a video upload site – think about grabbing a tips video, for example, embedding it into a blog post and then riffing on what else could have been added to the video to make it a better resource.

Your Turn

As you can see, there are a ton of ideas that you can get from places you’re already using, but may not have thought of. These are just 25 – but there’s bound to be a ton more.

So how about you – what are some of the ways you find content for your blog? Share your tips in the comments!

image: hugovk

The Problem with Influence

I just read something by a friend that’s both interesting and sad at the same time (and sad as in lame, not as in Bambi).

My friend mentioned that he was speaking to a well-known PR guy and author a few months back.

The topic of the conversation was a site for bloggers and authors that my friend works at. According to the PR guy, the site would never be much of a success because he (the PR guy and author) wasn’t ranked high enough.

The PR guy then went on to say that the site wouldn’t be a success because, “You have to make sure the biggest influencers are ranked at the top.”

As my friend so eloquently put it, well f*ck me sideways.

Influence Shminfluence

The problem with influence is that it all boils down to relevancy. You can’t tell me that a pig farmer in Alaska (tough old pigs out there!) is influenced by what a PR guy is saying about the 2.0 or 3.0 world.

Instead, I’d think he’d be more influenced by bacon writers and pork chefs, and analysts looking at how the pork buy trade will look in the next two years.

When it comes to influence, the folks that matter to us are the ones that are in our industry, or affect the industries of our customers and clients. That’s what influences our business and its success (or lack of it), not someone who’s in an industry that has little to no relevance to us.

There’s no doubting that the PR guy is influential in his sphere – but does that mean he should be viewed as such in all spheres, and “ranked higher” because of it?

Egos and Eggheads

And this is where the real “problem” with influence comes in – when it starts to make you feel you automatically deserve to be in a certain position, or recognized more by something or someone.

The quote my friend uses – “You have to make sure the biggest influencers are ranked at the top” – is possibly the biggest reason why influence is coming under so much flak at the minute (just Google “Klout sucks” to see some examples).

We seem to be creating an environment where people expect to “be someone” because you have some success in a certain field, which is a shame.

There’s nothing wrong with success, and there’s nothing wrong with pride in your achievements. Hell, success should be celebrated.

Ego, on the other hand (especially one where your head gets as big as an egg’s on a pin tack) is a different beast altogether. When it reaches the stage that someone says a venture won’t be successful because the influencers aren’t ranked higher – then we have a problem.

Influence and Success

We need influence. Consumers buy from their favourite celebrities and their recommendations of a product. Professionals buy from people they trust when that person makes a recommendation. Brands use “names” to help promote products and services.

So influence works. But wouldn’t it be better to be the right influence, as opposed to the type that’s defined by someone who appears to have a huge dose of self-importance?

And as for that site that would never be a success?

There are about 30,000 authors and bloggers registered with the site. The company had a great Blog World Expo, and are about to launch a new platform that (ironically) will help people like the critical PR guy connect with bloggers for PR campaigns.

Not too bad for something that defines its own influence, huh?

image: Divine Harvester

Everyone Is Someone’s Child

Sometimes, through anger, we see our own frailties. Or maybe not frailties – but definitely nuances that could be shared better.

The last few days has taught me that, as I’ve been pretty angry on this blog. Although, to be honest, I don’t see it as much anger as it is passion.

I’m passionate about how business should be run; how people should be treated; how ideas should be received. But that passion can sometimes blinker my view, and that can then be mistaken (rightly or wrongly) for anger.

But… passion and anger can tread a very fine line with each other, and that then leads to possibly hurting others. Which goes against everything I believe in to start with.

Today, a couple of posts made me realize that my passion may have overstepped the line and molded into anger instead.

Critic or Caustic

Someone I admire a lot is Jennifer Fong, and she posted her take on my recent post about bloggers not being able to stand the heat. In Jen’s post, she recalls the sage words that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.

While I might not agree with that completely – sometimes we have to say things that won’t be liked – Jen makes a great point about how these things could be said. Part of Jen’s post that stood out to me was this statement:

I think we sometimes forget that whether you?re an A-lister or a D-lister, we?re all still people. People with feelings.

If I’ve written something that resulted in someone like Jen writing something like that, that makes me stop and think on how I’ve portrayed something.

The other post was from Chris Brogan, who responded to some criticism he’s had in the last few days (one of which came from my blogger and heat post). Chris makes some valid points about criticism, and why some matters and some doesn’t. But what stood out for me from Chris’s post was this comment from his wife, Kat:

In the end guys, it’s just a job. We all go home at the end of the day. We hold our kids and/or our partner and smile and relax. It reminds us why we work hard and why it matters.

There’s more to Kat’s comment, but that part stopped me dead. Because I’m a father, and a husband, and it made me remember a simple thing.

Everyone is Someone’s Child

Or father. Or husband. Or wife, or daughter, or son. And sometimes we forget that. When we criticize, we forget that it’s not just the person we’re criticizing, but everyone around them.

Sure, a blogger has their community to rally around them when the shit hits the fan, and that’s great – that’s what a great blog should have. That tells you you’re doing it right.

But behind the scenes, a wife or a little kid is watching their loved one take heat. It may well be justified heat, but how it’s given can mean the difference between, “Oh, another one of your readers complaining – ah well” to actually upsetting the people behind the blogger. And that’s wrong.

So.

Like I say. I’m a passionate person, and I can’t – won’t – change that. It’s how I was brought up, and it’s how I (mostly) am away from here. If I see something – or someone – I disagree with, I’ll continue to offer an opposing view, and the reasons why. Any other approach would be cheating both myself and you.

But how I share my opposition?

I’ll be remembering that everyone is someone’s child. And I’ll be trying not to upset the parent from now on. If I slip up, feel free to be the first to remind me of this post.

Sound fair?

image: paloetic

Don’t Be a Blogger If You Can’t Stand the Heat

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Harry S. Truman.

It’s been a funny old week in social media. The natives are getting restless and angry. People are questioning more, and accepting less. This is a good thing.

When we accept for too long, we become immune to what’s right, or what could be right. We simply become drones, and wait for the next generic piece of news or advice to be fed to us.

Except we don’t see it as generic because – rightly or wrongly – we’ve elevated the speakers to the position of icons, or representatives.

It’s not too dissimilar to the fixation some people have on celebrities.

We buy magazines that compete for the juiciest story, the meatiest headline, because they know it’ll sell copies. It doesn’t matter if the story is a piece of crud or not – it sells because it fills our need for quick fixes.

Because of this fixation, we place celebrities into multi-million dollar lifestyles where they soon lose touch of who put them there, and complain that magazines are taking photographs and making money from them.

They complain of a loss of privacy, and why can’t people just love what they do.

To some points, they’re right. Just because you’re in the public eye doesn’t mean everything you do should come under scrutiny. But the public face of you? You chose that, and so should be answerable to it.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Bloggers are kind of like the Holywood celebrities, or at least the “top-tier bloggers” are. With subscriber numbers in the tens of thousands, social network followers in the six figures and book deals either past or upcoming, the name bloggers are the equivalent of our Hollywood crushes.

They lead the way because they’ve found their audience and written – successfully – for them. Nothing wrong with that at all.

But sometimes they’re questioned. Sometimes their point of view isn’t universally accepted as being the right one, and the comments after a particular post bear this out.

This is when we see if the blogger is an A-Lister and all that means (respect for critics as well as fans) or if they’re A-list only to those that placed them in that position.

Some “pass the test”, if you like. Some don’t, and prefer snark and offering a retort that’s quite clearly a jab at the person asking the question. Again, to each their own – if you want to come back snarky, that’s your choice.

But your response defines how others see you.

I unsubscribed from Chris Brogan’s blog a while back (though I’ll still pop over and read it) after he preferred snark over conversation with a bunch of his commenters. Funnily enough, I found new respect for Brian Clark after previously questioning his approach, after the way he handled himself in a few situations.

They both have enough readers not to care about one single new subscribe or unsubscribe. But that’s not the point.

We can all be snarky and respond with bite. But that can be reserved for the post itself. Duking it out with your readers just comes across wrong.

If you offer an opinion, have the balls to have people disagree and question you. After all, they’re the guys who put you where you are now. The least you could do is respect their opinions.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Note 23/11/10 – Chris addresses his criticisms in this post today.

image: Catfunt

Grow Some Balls

We need to grow some balls.

Not all of us – there are some folks that have balls the size of Jupiter and show them every day. But they’re becoming fewer in numbers, and that’s a shame.

A lot of folks blame social media for this. I can see why. If you question someone and they’re a person of “influence”, usually you get a shit-storm of comments about you being a hater. Right, like having an opinion means you hate something…

Or if you call something out as being bunkum, again you can often get a ton of crap landing on your doorstep as people question your brains, your ethics, your sanity and more. And on social media (or the web full stop), it’s easy to hide behind the wall of the virtual burning pitchfork along with the rest of A-lister X or Influencer Y’s minions.

But the thing is, it’s not just social media – it’s society as a whole, and social media is just part of the blame.

In business, “leaders” have forgotten what it really means to lead. Instead, they bully employees into thinking their ideas are dumb, and while the employee is on the ground picking their shredded idea up, make sure they stop and get a coffee on the way back.

Educators are telling our brightest students that they won’t have a voice in the business world when they leave college, so be quiet, just listen to your superiors, and maybe – just maybe – they’ll get on in their chosen profession.

Lovers are putting down the ones they supposedly adore by saying they’ll never amount to much and that mother was right, I should have married the guy or gal from the family with the Porsche in the driveway.

Stop. Please. Stop right now.

This is bullcrap. And we’re allowing ourselves to fall for it.

So what if you don’t have the best idea? At least you have an idea and have the balls to put it on the line. So what if you’re the youngest? Know when Mozart began writing symphonies? FOUR YEARS OLD!

And if your partner really blames you for all their inadequacies, find a new partner.

We’ve allowed ourselves to be led by others because we fear what will happen if we think for ourselves. Actually, scratch that – it’s not the ability to think for ourselves that we’ve lost, but the belief in our thoughts being right and following through on those convictions.

And that’s wrong – you know why? There is no such thing as perfection – everything can be improved. And the “experts” don’t always have the best ideas on how to do so.

So, please. Grow some balls. Question everything. Settle for nothing. Even the most common sense answers can always be enhanced through questions and ideas.

If you already have balls and you’re doing this, you can ignore this post and carry on doing what you’re doing. Although if you have some extra balls to go around, feel free to share with those that need a little help. We all need to stop this malaise, and extra balls might just do the trick.

Sound fair?

image: Rafael Penaloza